Are Airlines Actually Getting Nicer?

After the crew on a Delta Air Lines flight bought pizza for stuck customers, we wondered: are airlines getting nicer, or just trying to get good PR?

This just in: airlines have figured out that being nice to customers is actually good for business.

That’s the message that got a lot of Twitter action after Delta Air Lines's pizza party strategy last week. It started when severe thunderstorms delayed flights into Atlanta, forcing a number of them to divert to alternate airports. That’s usually the stuff of airline horror tales, but this time, as passengers cooled their heels in places like Knoxville, crews on several flights ordered pizza for all aboard, which baggage carts whisked out to the planes parked on the tarmac. Other random acts of kindness by airline personnel have made the news from time to time, and even the pizza gambit isn’t exactly original: Last year, a Frontier Airlines pilot actually shelled out his own money to purchase dozens of pies for stuck passengers.

And these gestures can take many forms: Southwest has made a specialty of surprising passengers on their birthdays (sometimes with a joke “gift” like a toilet paper "birthday cake," but hey, that’s Southwest). Spanair, the now-defunct Spanish line, once gave all passengers gifts on Christmas. But treating fliers to food during an operational meltdown actually isn’t so easy. In a bad situation, airline crews are focused on getting the plane off the ground as soon as possible, and while it seems stingy to withhold food and water, ramping up the catering carts isn’t a simple thing. “It really shouldn’t be the crew’s responsibility anyway,” said one pilot who preferred to remain anonymous. “That’s a decision that should be made by the station manager," the person who oversees ground and passenger services for an airline at an airport.

But as Delta just demonstrated, such customer care is not impossible—so what’s the difference now? According to Morgan Durrant, a Delta spokesperson, the airline is embracing a company-wide policy to take care of passengers when weather roils operations. (It’s also a federal rule that passengers must be given food and water during lengthy tarmac delays.) Other carriers are making similar noises: American, which is touting its "New American" rebranding campaign, is emphasizing up its new, upbeat attitude.

Of course, it’s the big three airlines (American, Delta, and United)'s reputations for indifferent customer service that have landed them near the bottom of customer satisfaction surveys in recent years—and it’s exacerbated by the growth of social media and ubiquity of devices that let aggrieved customers vent their exasperation in real time. Airlines have learned the hard way that stranded fliers can rapidly create a public-relations nightmare for the company holding them hostage—as United Airlines was reminded not long ago.

“They’re getting better at customer service now,” said Mike Derchin, an airline analyst with investment firm CRT Capital. “It’s only been in the last few years that the airlines have had some stability to the point where they could focus on that,” he adds. Moreover, employees are also sharing in the airlines’ newfound profit. “Employees at the airlines all of a sudden are making really good money,” he added, and that’s showing up in their attitude aloft.

But Charlie Leocha, president of Travelers United, a consumer group, scoffed at the idea that airlines have really changed their tune. “I don’t think so,” he said, when asked whether delivering pizzas to planes signaled a change in attitude. “This is the same airline that is squeezing more passengers into the back of the planes,” he said, referring to Delta’s new variations on the coach class product, which includes one tier—basic coach—that is heavily restricted. “The big airlines are going to a Spirit Airlines-type product at the back of the plane,” he said. But he noted that, in situations like tarmac delays, “those passengers are going to hit their tolerance at around two hours” of sitting in a tight space.

In that case, more pilots might want to have Dominos on their speed dial.